A DC-to-DC converter is an electronic circuit which converts a source of direct current (DC) from one voltage level to another. DC to DC converters are important in portable electronic devices such as cellular phones and laptop computers. Such electronic devices often contain several sub-circuits, each with its own voltage level requirement different from that supplied by the battery or an external supply (sometimes higher or lower than the supply voltage). Additionally, a battery voltage declines as its stored power is drained. Switched DC to DC converters offer a method to increase voltage from a partially lowered battery voltage thereby saving space instead of using multiple batteries to accomplish the same thing.
Most DC to DC converters also regulate the output voltage. Some exceptions include high-efficiency LED power sources, which are a kind of DC to DC converter, that regulate the current through the LEDs, and simple charge pumps which double or triple the input voltage. Linear regulators can only output at lower voltages from the input. They are very inefficient when the voltage drop is large and the current is high as they dissipate heat equal to the product of the output current and the voltage drop; consequently they are not normally used for large-drop high-current applications. The inefficiency wastes power and requires higher-rated and consequently more expensive and larger components. The heat dissipated by high-power supplies is a problem in itself and it must be removed from the circuitry to prevent unacceptable temperature rises.
Linear regulators are practical if the current is low, the power dissipated being small, although it may still be a large fraction of the total power consumed. They are often used as part of a simple regulated power supply for higher currents: a transformer generates a voltage which, when rectified, is a little higher than that needed to bias the linear regulator. The linear regulator drops the excess voltage, reducing hum-generating ripple current and providing a constant output voltage independent of normal fluctuations of the unregulated input voltage from the transformer/bridge rectifier circuit and of the load current.
Linear regulators are inexpensive, reliable if good heat sinks are used and much simpler than switching regulators. As part of a power supply, they may require a transformer, which is larger for a given power level than that required by a switch-mode power supply. Linear regulators can provide a very low-noise output voltage, and are very suitable for powering noise-sensitive low-power analog and radio frequency circuits. A popular design approach is to use an LDO, Low Drop-out Regulator, that provides a local “point of load” DC supply to a low power circuit.
Electronic switch-mode DC to DC converters convert one DC voltage level to another, by storing the input energy temporarily and then releasing that energy to the output at a different voltage. The storage may be in either magnetic field storage components (inductors, transformers) or electric field storage components (capacitors). This conversion method is more power efficient (often 75% to 98%) than linear voltage regulation (which dissipates unwanted power as heat). This efficiency is beneficial to increasing the running time of battery operated devices. The efficiency has increased due to the use of power FETs, which are able to switch at high frequency more efficiently than power bipolar transistors, which incur more switching losses and require a more complicated drive circuit. Another important innovation in DC-DC converters is the use of synchronous rectification replacing the flywheel diode with a power FET with low “on resistance”, thereby reducing switching losses. Drawbacks of switching converters include complexity, electronic noise (EMI/RFI), and to some extent cost, although this has decreased with advances in chip design.
There are heretofore unaddressed needs with previous solutions in providing power regulation when both linear and switching regulation may be desired.